so acute that he determined to go off
foraging. He had his revolver with him; he was a fair enough shot, and
so it was not long before he tumbled a 'possum out of a tree. He made a
rough meal of it, and after that set off aimlessly into the bush. Had he
kept to his original intention he would have speedily wandered into the
Mallee, and would have run a good chance of dying of starvation in that
thinly-populated district. But his mind was still in a whirl, and
instinct alone guided his footsteps to the east. He was many miles north
of the valley and during his travels he moved further north, so that he
did not come across it during his journey back.

His subsequent adventures are not very clear. Early in his travels the
piece of wood began to trouble him, and he decided that the sooner he
got rid of it the better. It is more than likely that he connected it in
some way with that blank feeling of inexplicable tragedy which seemed to
overshadow him. His instinct, however, led him to hide rather than
destroy it. He read the wording very carefully, but it failed to awaken
any responsive chords in his memory. As an after-thought, just as he was
about to slide the wood into the hole he had scraped out, he took his
knife and cut his name below the screed. Then he thrust it into the hole
and stamped the earth in on top of it. In this relation it is
interesting to notice the connection between the hiding of the money and
the burying of the wood that held the key to the position of the former.
It seems as if the sub-conscious memory of the one act had its influence
on the man in his performance of the other.

Thereafter Mr. Cumshaw simply disappeared off the face of the earth. His
son's story is that he went to New South Wales, married there and raised
a family, and in the light of subsequent events that seems to be what
most likely occurred. It is known, however, that the Cumshaws were in
Victoria again somewhere about nineteen hundred and two or three, Albert
being at that time seven years old.

With the lapse of years Abel had gradually recovered his memory, and bit
by bit most of the incidents of the robbery had stolen out of the
shrouded darkness of the past. He appears to have been perfectly
contented with his family, and for one reason and another the gold
remained undisturbed through the long years. The time was coming when
the old play would be staged again and new actors would arise to carry
it through.

The tale of